Senate jobs bill buried in snow

Plans to move a jobs bill through the Senate this week are like just about everything else in Washington — buried under a big pile of snow.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) vowed last week to have a bill on the floor by Monday. When that self-imposed deadline came and went, Reid threatened to keep the Senate in session over the weekend in order to get the bill done.

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But with more than a dozen senators away from the Capitol — and with a second storm pummeling the area — Reid has backed off from that suggestion, too. Tuesday evening, as snow began to fall again, he acknowledged that the Senate was unlikely to cast any more votes this week.

“We will continue to work with everyone on an agreement to move forward with this matter, and senators will reschedule any votes,” he said on the floor. “I doubt seriously there will be any votes this week.”

The White House and congressional Democrats have pushed to pass the legislation before the Presidents Day recess, giving their politically vulnerable members an accomplishment to tout back home to voters frustrated with the slow pace of the economic recovery.

And while negotiations have continued during the storms, staffers said it has been difficult to strike a final deal over the phone and e-mail.

“We are working on it,” Baucus said Tuesday night, but he added: “It’s kind of hard to touch all the bases.”

The storms have also kept Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a key Republican backer of the bill, stuck in his home state this week — although he’s participated in meetings with Republicans on the Finance Committee by phone. Hatch is the co-sponsor of a bipartisan small-business tax break that’s a linchpin of the legislation.

Republicans remain uncomfortable with the overall cost of the package.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn said that the estimates he’d heard put the price tag at $104 billion — significantly higher than the $80 billion cost cited by Democrats. Only about half of that cost, he said, is offset with revenue-raising measures.

“It’s a nonstarter to begin with,” he said. “If we’re going to do a jobs bill, let’s pay for it.”